International Screen Institute and SOFA Head of Studies Nikolaj Nikitin is the Artistic Director of the Palic European Film Festival, a Curator of his own section (Critics’ Picks) at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and a Senior programmer of the Stockfish Festival in Iceland.

Nikolaj has been a delegate to the Berlin Film Festival for 18 years and been working for the past two and a half decades as a film curator and critic for numerous film festivals around Europe and the Goethe-Institut/Institut français.

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He is the founder of the independent German film magazine »Schnitt« (1995) and the film editing festival Filmplus (2001) and has been a member of many international coproduction juries. He advises European funding bodies, lectures and teaches at film schools and film festivals around the world.
Nikolaj lives in Berlin and is a member of EFA, FIPRESCI as well as a General Assembly member of CINEUROPA.

Multi-cultural and globetrotter. Fatima was born and raised in Italy with Filipino origins. She moved to the UK at the age of 19 to pursue her studies in International Tourism Business Management at The University of Birmingham. She has extensive knowledge within the tourism field and gained lots of experience in the tourism and hospitality industry by working for Crowne Plaza, Hyatt Regency, and TravelPerk.

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Fatima has also worked for government bodies in the UK and volunteered for a few NGOs in Italy by participating in different youths’ European projects in Estonia and Mexico. All these opportunities allowed her to develop sector knowledge and gain hands-on experience, as well as to expand transferable skills such as personal development, leadership, and adaptability. As a customer-focused and experienced in communication and relationship building, Fatima is excited to put into practice all her experiences as the Course Administrator for ISI.

John, born in Manila but grew up in Vienna. He masters three languages: German, English and Tagalog (Filipino). After his apprenticeship as a consultant in one of the Big Four tax firms, John decided to challenge himself in a different field. He joined the United Nations Peacekeeping as a Soldier and went on Medical Missions for almost 3 years.

After his return, he then went straight to Marketing where he gained most of his skills in publishing and advertising. From Social Media Content Creator to Copywriter to Art Director, John is excited to put all his skills and experiences as Course Administrator for ISI.

Katja has been working for film, television and online media since 1993. More than a decade she spent in film production management and early film related online offers. She went on to head the press and PR department of Odeon Film Group in Munich where in 2010 she additionally took on the new remit of the sustainability officer, thus actually laying the foundations for green filmmaking in the German-speaking region.

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For several years now she has been consulting, teaching and writing for production companies, broadcasters, institutions, festivals and film schools like German public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, funk, Goethe-Institute Los Angeles, Barents Ecology Film Festival, naturvision filmfestival, Producers’ Alliance or Film Academy Baden-Wuerttemberg to promote the concept of sustainability in media productions. Since January 2022 in this capacity she is employed at Tolle Idee! Network, Munich. Katja is a member of German Green Film & TV Consultants Association, Filmmakers 4 Future and journalists’ association.

Maria-Christine has been managing all legal and business aspects of audio-visual content (film, TV, format), ranging from development (including rights acquisition) to financial structuring, (co-)production, to distribution of over 400 hours of media content. She has been the interface to talent, producers, broadcasters, major studios, streamers etc. In her previous role as the Head of Legal and Business Affairs Content Sales International at ORF Enterprise she was responsible for ORF and third-party content distribution contracts, applying her acquired knowledge from working at copyright law firms in Munich and Vienna and her postgraduate studies.

Kai May’s expertise stems from 15 years of experience in the film industry as a managing director/CEO of film production companies. His area of practice, therefore, covers not only the legal but also the business aspects of film and tv productions and other media and entertainment products like video/computer games. He advices national and international clients on the full life cycle of audio-visual content (film, TV, OTT) from rights acquisition, through the stages of development, financing, structuring and (co-) production, until exploitation and distribution, including the evaluation of film libraries and the improvement of revenue streams.

He is also a lecturer at Film University Babelsberg.

With nearly a decade of experience working in Sales and Distribution, Síle now runs an Audience Design consultancy helping independent producers and established production companies identify potential audiences for their films and the positioning of their projects in the ever-competitive marketplace. Since she began, her contribution as Audience Designer has led to international premieres at top festivals, world sales and theatrically-released titles, and successful applications with Creative Europe, the BAI and Screen Ireland.

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Síle is a member of the European Film Academy and the founder of The Breakfast Club, a peer-to-peer network for women working in the Business of Film in Ireland. She is an alumni of Berlinale Talents, Torino Film Lab, LIM Less Is More and the NFTS.

Actively involved in delivering training … For 7 years Julia ran the Marketing & Distribution Course for the Media Business School in Ronda, Spain and was Director of Content for the Creative Europe/ScreenSkills funded senior executive training programme Inside Pictures, as well as delivering training programmes for Screen Skills Ireland, Film Distributor’s Association, Focus in Scotland, and Creative England.

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Julia has been a driving force in creating ISI when the UK announced it would be leaving the EU and wanted to continue working with those in the international industry.

From a background in advertising and consumer PR, she joined PolyGram, the first European studio, where she was responsible for running the UK theatrical marketing and publicity departments. During her time, she had the honour of releasing such films as WHEN WE WERE KINGS, TRAINSPOTTING, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, FARGO, TWELVE MONKEYS and THE USUAL SUSPECTS, followed by stints as Deputy Managing Director of Redbus (now Lionsgate), and Head of Marketing at Film Four Distribution.

In 2003 she set her own UK distribution company, VERVE PICTURES with Colin Burch during which time she acquired and released Andrea Arnold’s RED ROAD, the Oscar nominated DOGTOOTH and Craig Gillespies LARS AND THE REAL GIRL. This was followed by two years as Head of International Acquisitions for a UK sales company.

Since 2013 she has worked freelance and been involved in various aspects of the film industry where she was a consultant to producers and, on Danny Boyle’s T2: Trainspotting, worked on the film from pre-production right through to its international release and worked with Pulse Films, Dogwoof, MBC Studio’s and the BFI.